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N4G hates the OUYA

You might think thats a weird title, but I've observed it to be true. An article was posted recently listing 500 or so games that are in development for the OUYA. I of course went to the comment section to see what people thought. Well the consensus was in and it was Casual. A Casual console with Casual games for Casual consumers. Nothing but ports of phone games and shovelware garbage.

I figured well yeah that very well could be its essentially a phone or tablet inside. It's probably got some fairly basic games being made for it. But as I read more the hate was just overwhelming and increasingly it came out. Many of the people commenting hadn't even bothered to glance at the massive list of games. Yet there they were talking about the Casual scum. So I decided to do a bit of investigating, I figured I would check out the first ten games on the list. You know see what it held, I weeded out the the phone ports or games I thought were boring.

There five games from a sample of ten, and just going by the genres anything but Casual. Now granted these all have pretty rough graphics. These are however generally very early builds, but with the gameplay in place its only an art change away from looking pretty good.

Obviously the OUYA isn't going to have the graphical prowess of an xbox or ps3. From looking further down the list at various games it will do maybe a bit above the ps2s range of graphics. So like a low end pc lets say. Some people might think thats not enough power for modern AAA gaming. Well its not.

The OUYA will cater mostly to various sized teams of indie developers. Who see it as an easy way to make the console games they've always wanted. With out the hefty multi thousand dollar costs and or restrictions that come with having your game on xbox or ps3. So we'll get 2d and 3d platformer games like donkey kong and mario, we'll get oldschool rpg's like legend of grimrock and diablo, and we'll get kart racing games, strategy games, and classic action games.

The development costs for these games will be so much cheaper than even a downloadable console game. So things that aren't feasible for AAA games to do will be on the table again.

Before I looked into this I was pretty ambivalent about the OUYA. I figured yeah probably just phone games and stuff. But after looking at a small sample of games coming to the system I have now become "hyped" for this machine. I didn't think the variety of games would be great but I am astounded by what I'm seeing. This thing will probably be a big deal when all is said and done.

If you got this far thanks for reading, leave some comments below so people can chat ;)

I love the idea of a cheap, developer friendly platform, for indie developers, with an OS that lots of developers are already familiar with.

But the nature of Android is that it can be, is, and will be on loads of devices. OUYA copycats are already coming in full force. It's already not very unique. It's weak (remember, processing is more than just graphics and very basic hardware won't even play all modern 2d games). The manufacturing power just isn't behind it to mass produce it to a large, worthy audience.

They NEED to start scoring contracts to get it built into TVs. THAT is what will make it unique and give it the strength it needs.

I can't see copies of it being a bad thing, chances are they will all run the same store so it'll just mean people can get different systems with more or less power depending on their funds and requirements.

It's not actually that weak if you look at it's stats. The arm 19 is a 1.7 gh quad core, with a 520 mhz geforce GPU, and a gig of ram. Which only puts it at about half the power of the ps3 or 360 (and about twice as powerful as the wii 729 mhz) on the CPU, but almost the same on the video card and with twice the ram. It's hardware should cover graphics past what the wii was showing the last few years, except in higher definition. So 3d platforming games and such

"I can't see copies of it being a bad thing, chances are they will all run the same store"

Why would they run the same store? Are they planning on using Google Play?

Even if that were true, they would still have to make the game compatible with a bunch of different controller interfaces and such (on a programming level) - a feat less worthy than just having it on bigger, established platforms.

Pc is less user friendly and more expensive to get into for users. Consoles are too expensive to develop for with ridiculous fees for dev kits, publishing, updating etc. Phones and tablets provide poor support for tv's and controllers.

Then all of sudden it costs as much as next-gen console over the lifespan (5, 6 or 7 years x $99) and it will be hard for game makers to both make games that take advantage of the latest models and work on the older models at the same time.

Now it reminds me of cheap shoes, they need replacing all the time and were never as nice as one good pair.

That's true but I'm tied to a contract. I also don't love touch screen games and carrying around a dual-shock isn't very practical, so I take a dedicated portable when I want to play on the go.

My contract is running out soon, but I'm reluctant to upgrade because although there are now faster phones, I don't really see the software to take advantage of them. When I do dabble on my mobile there's still nothing I've come across on the Google Play my phone can't run flawlessly.

I still find that even the best mobile/tablet games always come with the end disclaimer of "great...for a phone/tablet"

That in itself just isn't good enough for me when I can take Mario, Metal Gear or Persona etc with me and I don't see why that's going to suddenly change with Ouya. Only instead of being an inferior experience to my dedicated portables it will likely be an inferior experience to my dedicated consoles and my PC.

I think the reason that it is hated on is that it is seen as a step backwards.

Most people on this site are fanatical about gaming, hence why they come here to get all the latest news from every possible source. We get excited about new technology because it opens up new possibilities for gaming and we are skeptical of something like the ouya because it offers us nothing new.

I'm the one-man team making Afterdeath. Thanks for recognizing that it's only a few art assets away from a legitimate game, I decided it was better to focus on the gameplay first instead of making fancy art for publicity and money-grabs before the game was worthy.

I backed the OUYA and received a dev console because they offered me more control over my product as a developer than Xbox Live. If they follow through on their promises, I should be able to release a number of unique quality games for Ouya over the next several years.

Keep in mind that I'm only one person doing all the programming and art in the bits of spare time after I get off my day job, so the progress is very slow compared to other teams. I'm not looking to kickstarter and take people's money with nothing but an idea, I want to make a worthy product that will offer you Super Meat Boy quality gameplay at a $3 price point. Check out my first attempt at graphics for the game below, but I should have some better gameplay videos released in a few weeks.